A utility provider, such as a gas, electricity, or water provider, may have a large number of utility devices that provide control, measuring, and/or sensing capabilities that are installed in the field in order to control transmission and distribution of the product, measure and record product usage, and/or detect problems. Such utility devices may include water, gas, or electrical meters, remotely controlled valves, flow sensors, leak detection devices, among others. Utility devices may include or be connected to wireless communication end-devices (herein also referred to as “nodes”) that communicate through wireless communications with other communication devices to provide remote meter reading, for example.
A traditional Advanced Meter Reading (AMR) system allows for only one-way communication between a node and another network device, such as a mobile (“drive-by”) collector. The node periodically emits a signal (herein also referred to as an “AMR beacon”) containing information identifying the utility device (such as a water meter register identification number) as well as a usage reading determined by the device. The node in a conventional AMR system does not receive any communication from any network device.
AMR networks evolved into Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) networks, which are characterized by two-way communication between a node and another network device or devices. In a typical, fixed AMI configuration, an AMI system may comprise a central host capable of connecting via wired and/or wireless networking infrastructures to a number of communication nodes, each node providing network communications for one or more connected utility devices (including metering devices, control devices, sensor devices, or the like). The AMI system may further include data collection hubs, repeaters, gateways, and the like. Despite the advantages presented by AMI networks over AMR networks (such as robustness), many utility providers continue to use AMR networks because the costs of completely replacing an AMR network with an AMI network are significant.